Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast Day 2

SURF: 2-4 foot and riflingEVENTS HELD: Men’s Round 3NATURE’S CALL: Could get good this weekendPREDICTED: Tube time

People actually started writing Andy Irons off. Rumors abounded that he would drop off the tour or wouldn’t be able re-qualify this year. Sure, he hasn’t had a decent result since his Chile win back in June. So he had a shocker at the Pipe Masters and the Monster, plus a lackluster heat here on Friday. So what? This is Andy Irons we’re talking about. He’s three-time world champ who’s still in his prime. You really think he’s going to lose to a 16 year-old Tahitian trialist man on man in a CT? Come on.

Andy pretty much put all that crap to rest with his heat this morning. Nothing but straight edge surfing on a now straight edged sand bar. “I want to be here and I like to do well. I like to win heats and it feels good, it’s my new buzz,” he said.

Julian Wilson was another surfer who came in with his game face on. Despite being only 19 and having virtually no WQS experience, he’s looking like a danger man here. He beat Kelly in Round 1 last year and, today, riding a pink board for breast cancer awareness, he convincingly took out Pancho Sullivan. His next heat, against Mick Fanning, will be required viewing.

After those heats, the rest of the day was basically the wait for the Dane and Jordy show. “You know what’s crazy?” Dane wrote on his blog. “Dane and Jordy. It’s as if we’ve become one entity. Attached by some appendage I can’t see. Every press conference, awards ceremony, banquet. You can’t hear one name without the other following shortly after. I don’t get it.”

The fact that they surfed in consecutive heats in Round 1 and Round 2 and that they got similar results each time probably doesn’t help matters. Both suffered narrow losses on Friday, but looked very strong today despite the dwindling swell in the afternoon. “I’m just having fun surfing with my heroes,” said Jordy.

On the Goldie, there’s plenty of them to surf with. Paddle here out here expect to be rubbing elbows with the likes of Slater, Curren, Carroll, Potts, Occy, Andy and Bruce, Mick and Joel – all at the same time. There’s nothing like it anywhere in the world.

Now, with swell on the horizon, and a bank that has whipped itself back into shape and is back to being super, it’s all systems go from here on out.

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